Ani Ma'amin
by Nargles1211
Summary: This is a quick drabble about an experience Ludwig could have had in the concentration camps. Rated T just to be safe, and it includes a song.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia, nor do I own Ani Ma'amin (though it is a beautiful song)**

**Also, here is a link to the song and please enjoy!**

**/watch?v=7BvEzUXXvIc**

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If ever there was a place devoid of life, it was the concentration camps of World War II. However, the camps were not without faith. Everything within the concentration camps was gray or the colors were dulled almost beyond recognition. Only one color stood out amongst the gray scenery and even grayer people: red. That harsh color was engraved into the minds of everyone in the form of the Nazi armband. It would also haunt a soldier named Ludwig Beilschmidt for the rest of his life.

On an unremarkable, colorless day in Auschwitz, Ludwig was in charge of escorting a mixed group of Jews to "take a shower". The gaunt, emaciated faces of men, women, and children deprived of happy innocence slowly shuffled past him in the same manner as their predecessors. They were only another batch of names to be discarded in the fires of a war to create the perfect race of human beings. Ludwig himself was one of these perfect Aryans. He had flawless features, slicked-back blond hair, clear blue eyes, and the muscular build that all soldiers strived to achieve. He was a super soldier, a model citizen, and the personification of Germany. Something caught the attention of the stoic man today as the Jewish prisoners marched to their impending doom; a single, lonely voice was ringing out over the shuffling of feet.

"_Ani ma'amin. Ani ma'amin. Ani ma'amin_," the weak voice sang. The source of this lone voice was a shrunken woman with dull brown eyes sunk deep into her head and thin, mousy brown hair.

"Stop that singing and keep walking!" Ludwig barked at her. Instead of scaring her into submission, dead brown eyes pierced into Ludwig's bright blue ones as the woman straightened her back and continued to sing.

"_Ani ma'amin. Ani ma'amin. Ani ma'amin_," a chorus of voices sang.  
"Silence! There will be no singing!" he roared at them. To his dismay, more people joined in and harmonies began to form.

"_Be' emuna sh'léma. B'viat hamashiach. V'af al pi sheyitmahmeiah. Im kol zeh ani ma'amin_," the mournful voices continued to sing, united by the simple, age-old song.

"Stop! All of you stop!" Ludwig desperately shouted, pulling at his hair in frustration. "Don't you know you're dying?! Why sing when you have no hope left?!" he cried out, confused tear spilling from his wide eyes.

An old man shuffling by paused just long enough to say to the soldier, "Our people have been dying for a long time now." Once more, the man blended in with the crowd as Ludwig stared after him then looked around in disbelief. Many people were crying. Children clung to their mothers' twig-like legs and their mothers hugged them close, heads to the sky so their song will be heard. By whom? One can only assume it is for Yaweh, but also for the thousands of people who are dead and dying so they may have the courage to continue on.

For the first time since the war started, Ludwig saw his boss's speeches as false and saw the frail bodies shuffling to their deaths as human beings. These thin beings were not the waste of space they were made out to be, they were a mass of beautiful human lives. Nothing hurt his immovable man more than when he shut the door behind them while the last strains of their eerie song drifted through the thick, metal door. After turning on the gas, Ludwig fell to the ground and wept for the people whose lives were ended, for himself, and especially for his people who were as clueless as he was.

You may argue that the Battle of the Bulge was the turning point of the war until your throat is raw, but to Ludwig, it will always be that dull, gray day in a camp full of dying human beings who sang a song of belief despite the hardships forced upon them.

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**The end! Background behind this story: We sang Ani Ma'amin for chorus and though there a million and two fanfics about Ludwig and the concentration camps, I just wanted to write this. The translation for the song will be provided below. Thanks so much for reading!**

**I believe,**

**with a complete belief,**

**in the coming of the Messiah.**

**Even though he may tarry,**

**even so, I belive.**


End file.
